this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The average life expectancy of Japanese people declined in 2022 for the second straight year, affected significantly by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the health ministry.

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[–] tiredofsametab@kbin.social 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Anecdotally, I keep seeing more and more obese Japanese people and more and more eating junk. It's not terribly surprising, in that case.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Huh, is this a world-wide trend? The US's life expectancy keeps falling too...

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 years ago

Not really, a lot of countries already reversed the trend from 2021

The US is one of the worst performers.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01450-3

[–] ladybug@mander.xyz 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

There were also instances where deceased people were misrepresented as still living so relatives could collect on their pension. When the government began cracking down and the numbers corrected, the reported population of extreme elderly shrank. Obviously it isn’t the only reason, but it may have some impact.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/scandal-missing-100-year-olds-graying-japan/story?id=11393615

[–] CliveRosfield@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

From the very first line of the article and the blurb autopulled into the body of the post:

The average life expectancy of Japanese people declined in 2022 for the second straight year, affected significantly by the coronavirus pandemic, according to the health ministry.

[–] CliveRosfield@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Still wondering if it’s Covid

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago

Yeah, it’s a mystery all right.

[–] TheLobotomist@lemmy.dbzer0.com -4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I will express a very unpopular and controversional opinion, but truth can be cold and merciless: if we don't make life interplanetary a lot of people will die of starvation from overpopulation in a few decades.

Elderly people, while being an important source of wisdom, are objectively a burden to every society, economically and sanitaryly. They can't be the majority.

We need young and productive people to keep any form of society going. I'm not saying that coronavirus was a good thing but maybe, just maybe, reducing life expectancy is not such a tragedy, for now.

Please reply objectively and rationally, not with your gut

[–] NoMooresLaw@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I’m confused. You reference the challenges associated with an aging population and seem to be attributing it to over population. Isn’t it the reverse?

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

And you think we will make significant enough farms on foreign worlds to make any dent in this in the next few decades? If we can't make enough food with a planet that's literally designed with us in mind, there is no hope of making it work anywhere else that we can reach.

[–] stopthatgirl7@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

Longtermism is just modern day eugenics and ignores the people living today in favor of some nebulous future.

Longtermism poses a real threat to humanity

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 years ago

It's going to be far easier to grow enough food for 10 billion people on Earth than to somehow do it on Mars lol